Berlin remains on alert after the great fire declared in a Police ammunition warehouse

BERLIN, Aug. 6 (DPA/EP) –

The Berlin Firefighters have called for caution this Saturday after the large explosion that occurred on Thursday in a Police ammunition depot, which still represents an “enormous danger.”

The security cordon of a thousand meters around the site where the fire broke out on Thursday will be maintained in the coming days because there is still a great danger of new detonations.

Despite this, the extinction and cooling measures at the site of the explosion and at three adjacent points in the Grunewald forest are having an effect, fire spokesman Thomas Kirstein has indicated from the German capital.

The fire broke out at the site of the explosion on Thursday night. Tons of old confiscated grenades, ammunition and fireworks were stored in buildings on site.

Explosions were heard and the fire spread through the dry forest area during the day. The blasting center for the destruction of weapons and explosives has existed since 1950 and is now the responsibility of the police.

The task now is to ensure the cooling of the area with water. For this reason, the firefighters and the police decided to reopen this Saturday the local and regional rail traffic that connects the cities of Berlin and Potsdam along the tracks that are on the edge of the exclusion zone.

Instead, traffic will not be allowed on the nearby highway, which runs parallel to the tracks, a little closer to the danger zone, and will remain closed until at least Sunday.

The spokesman for the Fire Department has warned that the situation at the scene of the explosion is not yet under control. “Of course, there is an enormous danger,” he has argued.

Armored vehicles and robots are used there for refrigeration, since up to 700 degrees were measured on Friday. Kirstein declined to give any information about the new measures. “He is permanently watched,” he has declared.

Susanne Bauer, head of the Berlin Police Forensic Institute, also announced this Saturday new explorations at the site of the explosion.

“We’re going to go in with a protected vehicle to see what’s on the main blast road, then send the firefighting robot there.” “Then the situation will be reassessed,” she said. Bauer, however, has not provided information on the cause of the fire and explosions. “Now it is a matter of security,” he settled.